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Three important ingredients of a good baseball swing are staying compact, staying inside the ball, and staying through the ball. The following drills involve using two batting tees. These drills work on good hitting fundamentals and just as important, give hitters a better understanding of what those ingredients mean.
1. “High, Low tee drill” develops a compact swing and eliminates a long, uppercut swing. Place one tee a foot behind the other with both in line towards the pitcher. A ball is set on each tee with the ball closest to the catcher a ball and a half width lower than the front ball.Inexperienced hitters will often hit both balls at first or ground balls only, but with practice, line drives on the front ball will be the result. For pitches below the waist, balls are set two balls width apart to prevent hitting down on the ball. Remember, good line drives with backspin are always the goal when hitting on the batting tee.
2. “Inside/outside tee drill” develops an understanding of contact points on different pitches and hitting the inside back of the ball. Set one tee on the outside corner about 4 inches in front of the lead leg and the other tee on the inside corner about two feet in front of hitter. After the stride hitters hit the ball called by the coach – either “inside or outside.” With no coach to call out, hitters alternate hitting one than the other, after a ball is placed on each and after the same stride. With the correct swing, only the ball called should be hit and to the field where the ball is located.
3. “Two tees in line drill” develops swing extension without pulling out the front shoulder, which causes an early roll of wrists.
Set two tees in line with a ball at the same height on each tee and about a foot apart. The object is to hit line drives with both balls, possible if hitting the inside back of ball closest to the hitter and with good swing extension. As hitters get proficient at this ball distance apart, they can extend the ball distance with the goal being the same result – two line drives.
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